snnance 's review for:

Behind You Is the Sea by Susan Muaddi Darraj

3.0

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Love that this is probably the first representation of Palestinian Christians I’ve come across in literature, despite the very real Zionist narrative to make Palestine a Muslim-Jew issue. I thought this was an interesting portrayal of Arab Americans balancing their immigrant identities across wealth and class. However, it’s extremely frustrating to see another literary work that feeds into the stereotypes of Arab men. Each Arab man introduced in the work was problematic in their own way. And sure so were the women, but a lot of the non Arab men were one dimensional and portrayed as “the good guys”. As an Arab, I’m tired of seeing other Arab women tearing down Arab men in their books, whether subconsciously or consciously. I also would have loved a little more back story to some of the connections between the families as I was often confused who was related to who.

Overall though, Susan Muaddi Darraj’s prose is easy to get lost in and beautifully written. I’d be interested in reading any follow up books she comes out with